neither east nor west, but always somewhere in the middle. well, it looks spectacular. ramin: you can t have this in a restaurant. it s time consuming, it s very expensive. so you have to persian cuisine has to be experienced in somebody s home. anthony: oh! thank you. roya: so this one here is called boz ghormeh. anthony: it s slow-cooked lamb in yogurt, is that right? roya: in yogurt and saffron and egg yolks. anthony: nazila, prominent art gallery owner, insisted i come over for lunch with her friends and family. roya: and here we have the sour cherry rice. little meatballs and chicken. ramin: sour cherries. more than any other nation, i think we love sour. nazila: yeah. anthony: rahim, the cook, has been with the family for generations. rice mixed with yogurt and saffron, baked into a crispy
dome. don t think of rice as a side dish around here. it can be the main event. rahim: okay, very, very good. anthony: you put far more on the table than anyone could conceivably eat. is that ramin: yeah. nazila: yeah. ramin: if you don t like your guest, you don t put anything. roya: and here we have koofteh, which is large, very big meatball. anthony: koofteh tabrizi. ground beef, onion, and cooked rice. walnuts, dried apricots, boiled egg, and barberries. ramin: anyways, we are a very interesting nation. anthony: indeed. and very, and very confusing. ramin: extremely confusing. anthony: for, for me, the contradictions are just nazila: enormous. anthony: enormous. nazila: iranians, we take you to our house and we take you to our hearts and all of that, and in that way we are extreme, you know. we are extremists in so many ways. anthony: so good. ramin: oh, it s always. anthony: you see this tortured relationship between america and iran for many
70% are under 35. and the thing is they deserve much more than what they have now. they want to have good job, they want to make, you know, have families, but it s not possible now for them. nazila: i hope we can have more faith in the ordinary americans, because every little change in the policy of the western country, it really, change in the policy of the western country, it really, really affects our lives here. anthony: the milad tower, iran s tallest building and a symbol of national pride. it rises a thousand feet in the air and looks out at all tehran and beyond. we were out on the observation deck taking it all in. trying to make some sense of it all. our time in iran was coming to
will react when they see this? ramin: they will start coming. nazila: it is very important for us as iranians to get truth. to make sure that we are seen as humans here and not the so-called enemy or the darkness of iran. you know, like you go to anybody s house in iran and i m sure that they will welcome you. ramin: the axis of evil. we re not the axis of evil. we re just normal evil like everybody else. newsha: ten years ago, iran was people, they had hope for future, young people, they wanted to travel, they had little bit money. but because of sanction this sanction really squeezed everybody. eight years, no foreign investment here, and so it was very difficult time. ramin: terrible, terrible. newsha: i mean the population is really young.
always somewhere in the middle. well, it looks spectacular. ramin: you can t have this in a restaurant. it s time consuming. it s very expensive. so you have to, persian cuisine has to be experienced in somebody s home. anthony: oh! thank you. roya: so this one here is called boz ghormeh. anthony: it s slow cooked lamb in yogurt, is that right? roya: in yogurt and saffron and egg yolks. anthony: nazila, prominent art gallery owner, insisted i come over for lunch with her friends and family. roya: and here we have the sour cherry rice. little meatballs and chicken. ramin: sour cherries. more than any other nation i think we love sour. nazila: yeah. anthony: rahim, the cook, has been with the family for generations. rice mixed with yogurt and saffron, baked into a crispy dome.